Christmas 2008

Just wanted to get some pictures up from Christmas 2008. We enjoyed spending time in Ohio with family. And of course we made Gingerbread houses (which is hoped to be a tradition for Josh and I). Josh and I tried to create a Cape Cod style house. Melissa and Eric work on a church and Mike's gingerbread house was along the lines of a Frank Lloyd Wright version (hoping I spelled his name right!)

Thanksgiving 2008

We spent Thanksgiving in Traverse City with my parents, my brother and his family and my grandma. We truly enjoyed our time with them. I think my favorite things was my dad's great idea to go play laser tag as a family. It was fun to watch Alyssa scream and laugh every time she got hit while dad tried to be the sniper. Jacob also tried to be sneaky while Josh got a lot of hits and good hiding spots. I held my own (at least that is what I think) and at the end of the game Jon was the winner of the whole event.

It was nice to see family and to spend time relaxing. We did our traditional shopping on Black Friday. We got a couple of good buys, but overall it just didn't seem like there was as many incredible deals and at Walmart we tried to miss the crowds by waiting for the register in the hunting department where the line was long, but not nearly as long as at the regular registers.

We thank God for our great family and the time that we had to spend with them for Thanksgiving!

Josh Posts

Hey Melissa this is for you! Jenean says that you wish that you had a post to read everyday so I am just letting you and the world know that Josh has posted something on the blog!

OK that is enough I don't want to over do it with my first attempt! Whew......

Strolling thru Millennium Park

What a great blessing it was for me to have my friend Kristen come visit last weekend! She was my partner in crime for the costume party (shown in our previous post). Kristin was Tonya Harding and I was Nancy Kerrigan:) What a blast we had wearing too much make up and make-shift ice skater outfits with real look alike ice skates...hahaha.

On Saturday, Kristen and I ventured into Chicago with the hopes to stroll thru Millennium Park. Kristen had never been there, and upon arrival I was surprised to realize I had really never walked in Millennium Park either. We first visited Cloud Gate" (which many people call the "bean"). Where we walked underneath it and got a handful of pictures of our reflections. Then walked thru the Jay Pritzker Pavilion where there were ongoing sounds of what Chicago sounded like back in the day when there were large train yards in the area. It was interesting listening to the squeals, horns and rushing of the trains that made them seem like they were really there.

After, listening to the sounds of locomotives for awhile we walked into the Lurie Garden. This was my favorite part and I imagine it would have been more spectacular in the spring and summer when the wild flowers are in bloom. The garden pays homage to the City's motto, "Urbs in Horto" (City in a Garden), which refers to Chicago's transformation from its flat and marshy origins to a bold and powerful city. (www.millenniumpark.org) The trees along the front of Millennium park were a beautiful orange color that looked so brilliant against the backdrop of the buildings on Michigan Avenue. We walked across the BP Bridge to get a better angle on a picture of the trees and the buildings.

Before leaving Millennium Park we wanted a picture of the two of us in front of one of the fall colored trees. We stood on a wall by a tree waiting for someone to walk by that we could ask to take our picture when we were first asked if we could be interviewed. It turns out that a young adults group from church in Indiana were interviewing people for the One Month to Live series. (This explains the pictures of us with the guys with the microphone and camera!) They took our picture for us and provided us with a springboard for good conversation as we walked down Michigan Avenue to finish off our afternoon. It was great to spend the day in Chicago, but mostly to spend time with my good friend!

Costume Party

We had a costume party for Halloween. It was great fun to see what ideas other people thought of for their costumes. My friend Kristen came to visit me from Grand Rapids. I was Nancy Kerrigan and she was Tonya Harding. It got quite the laughs! We have some great pictures of Tonya clubbing Nancy. Brett and Marissa were there to help us represent the young married from our small group. The favorite costume of the night was Daniel in his Tree costume. The funniest part for me was seeing him walking across the parking lot later that night and the only reason I knew that it was him was because of the tall branches and leaves sticking up in the air following him to his car. We played a handful of rounds of Hillarium and just as you would guess from the title it was hilarious. So glad that everyone who was able to come got into the spirit of wearing something you typically wouldn't wear to work the next day. Thanks for the great party everyone. Congratulations to Rachel for winning the Candy Corn jar:)

Pumpkin Patch

Fall is the best season ever! A couple of weeks ago we headed out to Kuiper's Farm with Mike, Melissa, Eric, Madeline and Hannah. It was a cold and windy day but we were able to walk around and pick out our perfect pumpkins. Eric and Melissa gave small pumpkins to the girls to hold. They were so cute investigating the little orange pumpkins. Melissa and I got some hot mulled cider that was delicious. Josh ended up getting a 30 pound pumpkin and Mike wanted one with lots of warts on it.

After going back to Melissa and Eric's house we played a never ending game of Phase 10 (maybe it felt never ending to me because I was so far behind). We had a fire going and drank some more hot cider...yummy! Then we finished off the night with pumpkin carving. I made a mickey mouse pumpkin, Melissa carved their house address into her pumpkin and Mike tried to carve his pumpkin until he realized the pumpkins with warts must be a different kind because he couldn't get a knife to go through it if his life depended on it. Therefore, he ended up drawing Shrek on his pumpkin. Josh's pumpkin was gutted for the seeds and basically left to be a decoration for our costume party since he didn't have time to finish carving. (See the Costume party post to see the Mickey Pumpkin!)

The day was wonderful. All the festive fall activities had me longing to jump in the leaves (but their weren't very many leaves yet). If Melissa and Eric needing any help raking, maybe I'll have to lend a hand to get my fix:)

Disney Extravaganza

Josh and I got to have a great vacation in Florida with my side of the family in September. We spent the week at the Shades of Green Resort and each day was full of fun at different Disney theme parks. Dad and mom were so gracious to take the family and it is a trip we look forward to every 4-5 years. One of our favorite rides was a newer one at Animal Kingdom "Expedition Everest." We also really liked the Rockin Roller coaster where Josh realized how much of a screamer on rides that I am. Alyssa was brave and went on all the roller coasters with us! Jacob was fearless and went on the Tower of Terror not remembering that he had gone on it when he was five. It was a lot of fun to spend time with the family. Dad and mom were able to do somethings with all of us as and also enjoy more relaxing time back at the resort. Justin and Julie enjoyed watching Bailey and Braden enjoy the kids stuff, then they would squeeze in some fun for themselves with the big kids stuff. Jon was out to do it all! Josh and I took a few outings of our own. We went on our first water coaster, a water slide that has hills (kind of like a roller coaster) where you are then pushed back up the hill by a large amount of bursting water. Unfortunately Josh didn't scoot up enough on the raft and he claims it felt like a vacuum was on his butt. Of course we made a little time for "Ticket to Ride." What a great vacation we had in the magical land of Disney.